They need a new vehicle category? Why does an electric bicycle need a driver license in the first place?
The other problem here is that with ever-increasing electric motor technology, old standards like engine displacement, or even power supply (gas vs electric) are not great indicators of the maximum speed of these things. As it stands, while 13 km/h is not that fast (its a reasonable jogging pace), it is very fast if the user is zoned out on their phone, which happens all too often in e.g. airports or tourist zones.
In general I understand moped as anything with limited speed/engine size.
If the user can easily switch to backup-pedal power to traverse e.g. Millenium Park in Chicago, then I don't really see the problem. Certainly, failure to use that function is a problem, but I don't think its good for society if we allow police to stop actual bicyclists on suspicion of riding a pedal assist vehicle. These things are pretty obvious when in use: bikes don't coast, unassisted, uphill at the speeds these things frequently achieve.
None of this is enforced.
Interesting. Just wondering - what does "pedal" mean to you. Explicitly spinning and explicitly with feets?
Are any of those not considered bicycles to you?
-Elliptical bicycle -Treadmill bicycle -Handcycle
On the literal sense every dictionary definition of "bicycle" is going to include some variation of "pedal driven". In the practical sense whatever functions enough like a bicycle is going to count, typically alluded to by being called a ${thing} bicycle, but "it moves on wheels and you go on it" isn't going to clear that bar on its own in this "electric suitcase".
You can certainly put a motorcycle into neutral and sort of scoot it around, but to make it usable in that configuration, you'd have to mess with the overall geometry to the point that its not comfortable to ride as a motorcycle.
They're probably talking about e.g. an elliptigo, which does go somewhere. Although I can't imagine it ever making sense to motorise one.
However, what would be an e-bike in some other country would be classified as a moped in Japan, requiring a driver's license. In particular, the amount of assistance an e-bike can provide is limited, some power has to come from the rider to be classified as an e-bike. So it is possible that because of some quirks of the Japanese regulations, an electric suitcase would be classified as a moped, therefore requiring a license.
Even the pedal assist ones can be a hazard by giving a rider false confidence or letting him ride faster than his capabilities. It takes a pretty experienced bike rider to sustain 25+ mph, but with electric assist, a lot more people can go that fast or faster for long periods without having developed the skills to do so safely.
You're not mad at ebikes, you're mad at people with unregistered vehicles, and potentially drivers driving motorcycles without motorcycle licenses.
Yeah, but the problem is that they all look the same, many legal bikes even come with easily removed speed limiters.
I'm ok with throwing the baby out with the bathwater -- regulate them all if it's impossible to tell which one is which until they get into an accident.
This is not the first example of there being an easily-abused commons of some sort, where we all benefit from using something within reason but a few bad actors can make things radically worse for everyone.
Radio comes to mind. It's very easy for anyone to prevent their neighbors from using their wifi, by trying to boost their own signal strength beyond legal limits.
But people don't, despite the equally easily removed power limiters. Because the FCC will come down hard on them.
Let's add more enforcement. Speed cameras everywhere, for cars and bicycles.
How do speed cameras help stop speeding bikes when they don't require a license plate?